This definitive dual portrait offers a fresh perspective on Abraham Lincoln and William Cullen Bryant's crucial role in elevating him to the presidency. The book also sheds new light on the influence that "Bryant and his class" (as Lincoln called the Radical Republican faction whose views Bryant articulated) wielded on the chief executive. How the cautious president and the preeminent editor of the Fourth Estate interacted-and how their ideological battle tilted gradually in Bryant's favor-is the centerpiece of this study. A work of meticulous scholarship and a model of compression, Lincoln and Bryant is a watershed account of two Republicans fighting common enemies (and each other) during the Civil War era.

Gilbert H. Muller is Professor Emeritus of English at the City University of New York, USA. He also taught at Stanford University, Vassar College, and universities overseas. Muller's books include the award-winning study Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque and critical biographies of Chester Himes and John A. Williams. His most recent study, William Cullen Bryant: Author of America, was favorably reviewed in The Wall Street Journal and Booklist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Nation, Newsday, The Sewanee Review, and The Georgia Review. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, the Ford Foundation, and other major institutions.